Weekly Sermon

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 reads, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

At the time that the apostle Paul wrote these things unto believers at Corinth, there were false teachers out and about.  Some of those false teachers were falsely teaching that there was no such thing as a resurrection from the dead.  Therefore, the apostle wrote 1 Corinthians 15 in order to defeat this false teaching.  In sod doing, the apostle began by communicating the elements of the gospel message and the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection out of the dead.

In verses 1-2 the apostle declared unto the believers at Corinth, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.” Now, the word “gospel” means “good news.”  Herein the apostle Paul was speaking of the gospel, the good news; and in verses 3-4 he revealed the three elements of this good news, saying, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Weekly Sermon

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 exclaims, “What?  Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Brethren, too many of us believers too much of the time are living our Christian lives on the ground of a spiritual lie.  Too many of us too much of the time are living out our lives as if they are our lives to live as we please.  Too many of us too much of the time are making the decisions of our lives as if they are our decisions to make as we choose.  Too many of us too much of the time have convinced ourselves that we have the right and the freedom to do what want to do, to say what we want to say, to enjoy what we want to enjoy, to pursue what we want to pursue, to choose what we want to choose, to think what we want to think, to feel what we want to feel, and to desire what we want to desire.  Yea, even when we would never make such a bold claim to such complete freedom in these areas because we recognize that there are some spiritual boundaries that we are not to cross, we still live out our lives and make our decisions most of the time on the ground of our own heart’s natural course without any consideration of any higher authority or priority.  We would not stubbornly declare, “It’s my life, and I will live it the way I want to!”  Rather, we simply go forward each day with whatever flows naturally.  Thereby, without stubbornly declaring it, we actually live out our lives the way that we want to. 

In addition, our adversary the devil has deceived us with the lie that we believers are no longer under the law, but are now under grace, and that because we are now under grace, we have the spiritual freedom to live and decide as we please.  Brethren, the great deceiver, our adversary the devil, is a liar from the beginning.  Certainly it is a Biblical truth that we believers are no longer under the spiritual bondage and condemnation of the law, but are now under the spiritual freedom and justification of God’s saving grace.  However, God’s saving grace does not provide us with the spiritual freedom to live and decide as we please.  As Jude 1:4 reveals, this is the teaching of the ungodly, who are ever “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [unbridled lust, doing whatever one pleases].”  Rather, God’s saving grace has provided us with the spiritual freedom to overcome temptation and sin and to walk in fellowship with God and in righteousness before God.  Even so, Galatians 5:13 declares, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”  In addition, Titus 2:11-12 proclaims, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” 

Now, the truth of our obligation and responsibility as believers to live in this manner is founded upon another truth – the truth that we are “bought with a price,” with the price of the shed blood and sacrificial death of God the Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  So then, from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 let us consider four important elements concerning this truth that we are “bought with a price.”

Weekly Sermon

In 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 the apostle Paul revealed the foundational principle for stewardship, syaing, “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

In its immediate context, the apostle was speaking concerning himself and those who served with him as ministers of God’s truth for Christ’s sake.  He revealed that such ministers are stewards of the truth of God’s Word, responsible to minister gospel truth unto the lost and edification truth unto the saved.  Then the apostle revealed God’s foundational principle for stewardship, saying, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”  Brethren, in stewardship from the Lord our God, faithfulness is required.

Now, although the immediate context of this passage concerns ministers of God’s truth, it is important for us to understand that the foundational principle for stewardship in verse 2 has an application to each and every one of us as the servants of the Lord our God.  Whether or not we have been called as minister of God’s truth, as our Lord’s servants we all have been given some stewardship from the Lord.  Therefore, the foundational principle of stewardship stands for us all – Faithfulness is required.